Mama
by ncfan
Summary: The thing about being furniture denied by its creator is that you don't exactly die. /Spoilers for EP4./


I will say, I was not expecting Sakutaro to show up to try to help Rosa escape Maria in EP4. I've seen the anime and manga adaptations of the whole "Maria kills Rosa over and over again" scene, but I don't think Sakutaro ever showed up in any of them. So that led me to thinking, and that spawned this. Needless to say, here there be spoilers and speculation.

I own nothing.

* * *

The thing about being furniture denied by its creator is that you don't exactly die. You are sent out of the sight of your creator. Anyone who believes you to be dead will never see you again either. They assign the term 'dead' to you, and that becomes immutable truth. They believe in their hearts that you are dead, so that becomes truth. You are no longer able to exist in their eyes. You are dead.

But the funny thing is, Sakutaro isn't dead, not exactly. He's more shade than solid, and he must be careful where he steps, lest he come into the line of sight of someone who believes him dead and thus burns him with their gaze. His existence is tenuous, inclined to shatter at the smallest gust of wind. That's not the same thing as being dead.

There are times, however, when he thinks that existing like this is worse than being dead. Maria cries, she wails and screams and curses to the heavens, and she can not hear him as he tries to give her comfort. Sakutaro watches helplessly as she slides further down the steep abyss. Beatrice believes him dead as well, or seems to; she seems to think that his death is something that needs to be avenged, and does nothing to curb the steady burgeoning of Maria's hatred and bitterness.

Rosa has died in the mortal plane. She has been offered up as one of the six sacrifices of the first twilight in Beatrice's resurrection ceremony. She is dead, and thus at the mercy of the Witch MARIA, who can not touch the living, but can play with the dead all she likes.

Rosa is dead, and Maria is angry. She is full of rage and black bile, wanting vengeance on Sakutaro's behalf, and she is implacable in her wrath and anguish. But Sakutaro doesn't want vengeance, not for his sake, _especially _not for his sake. All he wants is reconciliation between himself, Maria, and the one who created him. All he wants is the acknowledgement of his Mama, his creator, so that his existence will no longer be a tenuous thing, so that he will be able to play with Maria again, and his words will reach her again, at long last.

So he tries to help.

Sakutaro isn't sure why Rosa can see him. She, his creator, denied him, ripped apart the vessel that kept him bound to the world. She pried at the stitches along his neck until cotton came flying out and filled the room with white debris. _"Sakutaro is dead now_." She said that, said it with jarring certainty, and filled Maria's eyes with the sight of his cloth-and-cotton corpse to make sure she understood. To make sure that there was no way of mistaking the fact that he was dead. She shut the door on the matter of his existence, slammed it as firmly as she could.

And yet, Rosa can see him. As she picks herself up from the floor, her bleary eyes struggle to focus on his face, but she can see him. What can this mean? Does it mean that she cared so little for his existence that she can determine him 'dead' or 'alive' based on a present whim? Does it mean that it is not she who holds power over the determination of his existence, after all?

No, Sakutaro must not dwell on these matters. They are irrelevant to what is at hand. Rosa is dead, and thus within reach of MARIA'S heart, which longs for the rebounding of her pain back to its source. If MARIA gets her hands on Rosa, she will make her feel every stitch of pain that she ever felt, physical and emotional and spiritual, and will go beyond that, until there is nothing left inside. MARIA will torment her mother until she is utterly empty, and then, when there is nothing left inside of her, she will be filled with corruption. Sakutaro can not allow that.

He tries to help Rosa escape, but she resists. She is a mother who loves her daughter just as fiercely as she hates her, and the idea that she could be separated from Maria in such a sketchy place is enough to make her balk, to send her raging and demanding to be taken to her precious only child. She does not understand the level of danger that she's in. She does not understand how much Beatrice and MARIA will make her suffer, if they catch her.

And she doesn't recognize him.

"Who are you? Where are your parents? What's such a young kid doing here by himself, and why won't you take me to Maria?"

[You don't remember me?]

Sakutaro's heart is heavy, and full of fear and doubt. This is the last test, and Rosa's absolute last chance. If she can acknowledge him, and address the truth of her creation of him, he can take back what once was his, and she can be forgiven for the hurt she has meted out to her daughter. He can exist in everyone's eyes again, and see Maria once more. All Rosa has to do is acknowledge that she made him, and that he is real, and alive.

He loves her. Rosa is Sakutaro's creator, his Mama; how can he not love her? Even when she hurt him, even when she ripped him apart and said that she was dead. The blinding agony of her denial of him was far worse than the pain of having his cloth-and-cotton vessel ripped to pieces in her hands. All that can be wiped away, however. All that can be forgiven, and forgotten. All Rosa has to do is acknowledge him, as his creator, his Mama, and say that she knows he's real.

She doesn't.

Rosa rejects him and pushes him away, as she has done with Maria so many times. That's the end of it. The force of rejection is greater than any gun shot or bomb blast, and Sakutaro can not withstand it. He can't protect Rosa, not anymore.

His body falls to pieces yet again. Cotton and black bile spills from his mouth. He falls into nothingness, a toy discarded by its creator.


End file.
